A Scanner Darkly Trivias

In the novel, Philip K. Dick mentions that the scramble suit's fictional creator will appear every so often, for a fraction of a second, as one of its faces. In the movie, Dick appears for a split second as a face on the scramble suit.

The film has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "drug and sexual content, language and brief violent images".

Though several popular films based on Philip K. Dick's writing have been released since the first, 1982's Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly is the first American-made adaptation since Blade Runner to be based on one of Dick's full novels instead of a short story. 1992 saw the release of Confessions d'un Barjo, based on the novel Confessions of a Crap Artist.

Alex Jones makes a cameo appearance in the film. The director, Richard Linklater, has been interviewed by Jones regarding how he associates real life with the movie, and how he was inspired by some of Jones' core ideologies.

A long-running rumor suggested that Radiohead was composing the score for this film. This is untrue; however, the song "Black Swan" by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and other songs such as the Radiohead B-side "Fog" are featured in the film. The song featured in the original theatrical trailer is "Teen Angst" by electronica band M83.

During the trailer, a quick shot of a woman wearing Philips headphones shows the words "Phil D." for a logo; this would seem to be an abbreviation for Philip (K.) Dick. The words streaming across the screen she's looking at are from the Blade Runner script.

Both Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr play drug addicts. In real life, Downey has been arrested on multiple occasions for drug possession, and Harrelson is a marijuana/hemp activist.

The first 24 minutes of the film are available for free viewing at IGN Filmforce.During the first psychological test, the 'dog' and 'pyramid' cards disappear from the table after Bob puts them down.

When Bob wakes up and reaches over Connie, he is wearing blue boxer shorts. But in the footage that he watches later, he is naked.At New-Path, the pool of Bob's vomit disappears and reappears between shots.

When Barris is served in the diner, french fries are scattered over his plate. When seen again, the french fries are replaced with vegetable sides.When Ernie lifts the bike, he picks it up by the top wheel. When he is shown carrying the bike a second later, he is holding it by the lower bar.

While Bob/Fred is giving a speech at the NewPath building, he takes his arms off the Podium and turns his side to the crowd. In the next shot, he's facing forward and his hands are on the podium again.Donna's earrings disappear and reappear while she is drinking coffee in the restaurant.

Robert Downey Jr. wrote most of his lines down on post-it notes and scattered them around the set so he could read off them while filming a scene. The rotoscoping team simply animated over the notes to remove them from the film during post-production.In Arctor's kitchen there is a drawing of a head in a box next to the phrase "Time to Thaw Walt". This is a reference to the urban legend that animator Walt Disney had himself cryogenically frozen.

When Arctor is going through the second phase of testing with the medical deputies, the laptop-like machine on which he is being tested is branded as V K mk1. V K stands for Voight Kampff, the test used in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, where the test is used to measure the response time of subjects to certain questions and determine whether they are humans or androids.

When Freck goes to the liquor store to buy wine, one of the brand names being advertised is St. Ubik. This is a reference to Dick's novel "Ubik".When Arctor sits on the stage waiting to give his speech to the Brown Bear Lodge, one of the images his scramble suit displays is Philip K. Dick.

The title comes from a paraphrasing of the letters of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Paul writes on "looking into a mirror darkly".Based on Philip K. Dick's personal drug experiences.

Terry Gilliam originally wanted to make a motion picture version of the novel in the early 1990s.Charlie Kaufman wrote a screenplay adaptation of the novel. When the project changed hands, Kaufman's script was no longer involved.